Two January "Lights" :Abraham J. Heschel & Martin Luther King, Jr.

     Two shining "lights" of the last century had January birthdays: Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.  Many do not know that the two were colleagues and personal friends.  They shared a common concern for the future of America and her diverse religious traditions, always encouraging action by individuals and communities of faith on behalf of minority peoples and those facing the harsh consequences of bigotry and injustice.  Historian Norman Finkelstein concluded that while King was "the architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement. . . Heschel was its Jewish conscience."

       When the long-standing bridge between Jewish and African-American communities was weakening under pressure from both sides, these two vigorously defended the importance of Jewish-African American relationships (past, present, and future.)  King defended Israel's right to exist, critiqued anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric and actions.  Heschel insisted Jews remain the struggles against racism and injustice - as part of being Jews and serving G-d.  Both modeled their lives on our Hebrew prophets, who insisted religious values must be lived, not simplistically 'believed.'

     Three books documenting their connections and on-going relevance are:  Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish Community  by Rabbi Marc Schneier; Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity: Essays by Heschel edited by his daughter; and Heeding the Call: Jewish Voices in America's Civil Rights Struggle, by Norman Finkelstein.

     Now some thoughts worth debating, and motivating us in 2012:

From Heschel:
-"I felt my legs were praying." (On accompanying King and others in the famous Selma civil rights marches in 1965)

-A religious man is a person who holds G-d and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.

-Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

-From a letter to President Kennedy before the clergy meeting at the White House to support the 1964 Civil Rights Act:  "Please demand of religious leaders personal involvement, not just solemn declaration. . . Ask religious leaders to call for national repentance and personal sacrifice.  Let religious leaders donate one month's salary toward fund for Negro housing and education.  I propose that you, Mr. President, declare a state of moral emergency . . .The hour calls for high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity."

From King:
-An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

-Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

-(Though a committed pacifist, King assertively distanced himself from those who dismissed Israel's existence and accomplishments):  "I think it is necessary to say that what is basic and what is needed in the Middle East is peace.  Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. . . I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done. . . .  Anti-Semitism has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind.  In this, we are in full agreement.  So know also this:  anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so. . ."

-A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

-Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

-Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

     While times since Heschel and King have changed, serious social and inter-group challenges remain.  We can only guess how they might respond to issues we face now.  But their insistence that religious communities must walk their talk, and work together in respectful inter-faith coalitions for the common good is still worth remembering - and enacting

-Rabbi Nina Perlmutter

The 3rd Selma Civil Rights March frontline.  From far left:  John Lewis, an unidentified nun; Ralph Abernathy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ralph Bunche; Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; Frederick Douglas Reese.  Rabbi Maurice Davis is between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Bunche.